Man Group has punt on spread bets

MAN Group is poised to enter the competitive financial spread betting market. Man Financial, the brokerage division of the FTSE 100 hedge fund and investment specialist, is to launch a betting service later this year.

'We are planning to launch a spread trading unit in financial products such as stock indices and individual stocks,' said Kevin Davis, managing director of Man Financial and a main board director of Man Group.

'This will provide our private clients with efficient, tax structured access to financial derivatives.'

Spread bets are currently exempt from British capital gains and income tax. Often, there is little to differentiate them in terms of pricing from other derivative products and they have been adopted increasingly by many active traders over the past few years.

It is believed that spread betting veterans David Morrison and Stuart Lane, previously at Finspreads, will be responsible for the new venture, which is expected to be launched by September at the latest.